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Davis Guggenheim Turns His Camera Back onto Teachers
Davis Guggenheim, the director of An Inconvenient Truth and Waiting for Superman, has a new film coming out — Teach, a two-hour documentary premiering Sept. 6 on CBS (which means Time Warner cable customers may not be able to watch it). The film follows four public school teachers throughout the school year, including Joel Laguna, a 10th grade AP World...
By Hillel Aron | August 30, 2013
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Deasy’s Community Meetings Take $2 Billion Funding Fight Public
The fight over the $2 billion LA Unified is getting under a new state funding program moves onto a public stage at 5:30 tonight when Superintendent John Deasy meets with a community group at Inner City Struggle in Boyle Heights. As the first of three scheduled meetings this month sponsored by CLASS, a coalition of community...
By Chase Niesner | August 29, 2013
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API Tests for LA Unified Improve Slightly, State Scores Fall
Los Angeles Unified made a marginal improvement on California standards tests while for the first time in at least a decade, the state score dropped, according to results released today by the state Department of Education (CDE). For LA Unified students, the annual Academic Performance Index (API) shows a three point increase over last year,...
By Vanessa Romo | August 29, 2013
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Service Workers Close to Winning Vote in Charter Process
A bill that would allow cafeteria workers, custodians and teacher aides to vote when a public school wants to become a charter is one vote (State Assembly) and one signature (Gov. Brown) away from becoming law. Both are expected, and it could happen within days. Currently, only teachers get to vote for conversion. But the change...
By Hillel Aron | August 28, 2013
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New Law Allows Grad Students to Have a Second Year of Training
Among the 28 bills Gov. Jerry Brown signed into law yesterday, four bear directly on California educators and students. One bill, SB 5, sponsored by Sen. Alex Padilla (D, Pacoima), aims to create better teachers by allowing graduate students to spend an additional year in training before becoming a teacher. Until now, the state had limited...
By Chase Niesner | August 28, 2013
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After Months of Planning, LA Unified Distributes First iPads
Photos courtesy of LAUSD LA Unified distributed the first wave of iPads yesterday to two elementary schools, Broadacres in Carson and Cimarron in Hawthorne. Over the next 18 months, every student in LAUSD will have one, according to district officials, who are spending nearly $1 billion on the effort. From this early look, so far...
By LA School Report | August 28, 2013
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Deasy to Vladovic (in effect): I See Your 7 and Raise You 7
Just days after Richard Vladovic proposed seven new committees at his first school Board meeting as president, Superintendent John Deasy suggested, in a memo to Vladovic the creation of even more committees. Another seven, in fact, covering: Arts, Human Resources and Personnel, School Safety and Discipline, Government Relations and Legislative Affairs, Charter and Prop 39 Oversight, Magnet and Autonomous School Expansion...
By Hillel Aron | August 27, 2013
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Ratliff Presiding Over Common Core Technology Session
One of the LA Unified Board’s new ad-hoc committees — the Common Core Technology Project Committee — is holding its first public meeting at 10 a.m. tomorrow at district headquarters (333 S. Beaudry Ave.), with the board’s newest member, Monica Ratliff, presiding. The meeting agenda says the committee, which includes board members Tamar Galatzan and...
By LA School Report | August 27, 2013
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CA Getting ‘Smarter’ with New Tests to Probe Critical Thinking
When California’s new statewide tests are in place by the spring of 2015, an 11th grade student might be asked the following: “Pretend you are preparing a report for a congresswoman on the pros and cons of using nuclear power to generate electricity. Gather some evidence, then write an essay arguing for either using nuclear...
By Brenda Iasevoli | August 27, 2013
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Common Core Standards Now Available from CA in Print Form
As a tool for better understanding California’s public education shift, State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson said today the Common Core State Standards are now available in print for the first time. CDE Press, the publishing arm of the California Department of Education, is offering print versions of the California Common Core State Standards: English...
By LA School Report | August 26, 2013